Protesters briefly broke into Serbia’s state television building in the capital Belgrade on Saturday demanding media freedom and unbiased coverage of more than three months of anti-government demonstrations. The protesters had been taking part in a demonstration by several thousand people against the rule of President Aleksandar Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), calling for media freedom as a condition for free and fair elections.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas on Saturday amid a nationwide power cut that has plunged crisis-hit Venezuela into further chaos and desperation for two days. The capital bristled with the security forces of Nicolás Maduro as supporters of Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly leader recognised as the legitimate interim president by more than 50 countries, poured into the city centre. It was a daring move by opponents of the Maduro government, both for the march’s unusual proximity to state installations and for it taking place amid the blackout that has almost entirely brought down the country’s communications. The National Guard and riot police were out in force across the city, in some areas blocking the demonstrators’ passage. The Telegraph counted eight army trucks full of soldiers and nine armoured vehicles and tanks in a convoy approaching the protest route. A supporter of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido, holds a policeman's face during a demonstration in Caracas Credit: AFP On Avenida Victoria, the march’s destination, protesters faced off with riot police before the rally even officially began, following an early morning confrontation that had seen security forces fire tear gas at locals as they tried to detain those erecting a platform for speeches. The atmosphere simmered as protesters, their anger heightened by the blackout, shouted at riot police with their shields raised. “You are killers!” one woman shouted. “There is still no electricity, people are dying, and you are going to pay for this!” “Soldiers, friends, the fight depends on you!” chanted others in the crowd, urging the security forces to come over to their side. Once again, it was almost impossible to communicate in Caracas or across most of the country. Power had been restored in some areas of the capital and elsewhere for a few hours on Friday afternoon, before cutting out in the early evening. The grid began to partially function again on Saturday morning, but by midday the blackout had resumed. Mr Maduro and his ministers have pinned the outage on “sabotage” at the Guri hydroelectric dam, accusing the US of waging an “electric war” against Venezuela. Jorge Rodriguez, the communications minister, has singled out Florida senator Marco Rubio for blame. A police officer tries to put out a fire during a demonstration in Caracas Credit: AFP But at the march in support of Mr Guaidó, such claims were ridiculed. “They always have an excuse to blame others,” Miguel Useche, a 72-year-old pensioner, told The Telegraph. “They have taken everything, I don’t know how many millions of millions they have looted,” he said, attributing the electrical collapse to corruption and lack of maintenance. The outage has brought further hardship to a country where many are already struggling to survive amid punishing shortages of food and medicine. As well as communications, water pumps have failed, food is rotting in fridges, businesses are shuttered and transport is virtually non existent. Petrol stations and grocery shops are running dry, with huge queues snaking around the few still operating. At hospitals across the country, back up generators have failed or been insufficient to power life saving equipment. At a number, medical staff have been left ventilating premature babies or patients in critical condition by hand. On Saturday an NGO reported that fifteen Venezuelans with advanced kidney disease had died after being unable to get dialysis during the country's extended power outage. "Between yesterday and today, there were 15 deaths for lack of dialysis," said Francisco Valencia, director of the Codevida health rights group. Carmen Yagres, a 38-year-old engineer, said Mr Maduro’s government must go. “We are here because people are dying,” she told the Telegraph. “It seems it doesn’t matter to them.” She implored the US to intervene to end the crisis. “We need international help,” she told The Telegraph. Mr Maduro, too, called supporters to the streets of Caracas on Saturday. The hardcore militants of his Socialist PSUV turned out, chanting patriotic slogans in defence of the fatherland against “imperialist aggression”. But away from the rank and file, the mood was subdued, the thronging crowds of fervent supporters he has in the past commanded nowhere to be seen.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A prominent human rights lawyer in Iran who defended protesters against the Islamic Republic's mandatory headscarves for women has been convicted and faces years in prison, an activist group said Wednesday.

Thousands of protesters in the Gaza Strip Sunday called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to resign after attempts to pressure his rival Hamas with financial cuts in the impoverished enclave. “Leave!” yelled crowds made up mainly of supporters of Hamas and Mohammed Dahlan, an Abbas rival expelled from the president’s Fatah party and who now lives in exile.

Ureña (Venezuela) (AFP) – Edinson Cisneros gasped and wheezed as he tried to talk — he was one of the protesters struck by rubber buckshot fired by Venezuelan security forces breaking up border demos demanding the entry of emergency aid from Colombia. The main crossing points on the Colombian border became flashpoints for unrest Saturday as Venezuelan security struggled with twin tasks: keeping Venezuelans from leaving to get aid stockpiled in Colombia, and stopping people crossing the border with aid packages. Cisneros, 24, was in a large crowd that tried to reach the Francisco de Paula Santander border bridge, the crossing point that links Urena, Venezuela with Cucuta, Colombia.

Venezuelan forces on Saturday hurled tear gas and fired rubber to break up a crowd demanding to cross the Urena border bridge to Colombia. "We want to work!" people chanted as they faced Venezuelan National Guard riot police blocking the crossing, one of several ordered closed by President Nicolas Maduro late Friday. Supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido in Colombia are planning to cross the border carrying emergency supplies into Venezuela. While the need for basic food and medicines is real, the effort is also meant to embarrass military officers who continue to support Maduro's increasingly isolated government. Juan Guaido, recognized by most Western nations as the country's legitimate head of state, defied court orders not to leave Venezuela by arriving on Friday in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where aid from the U.S. and Colombian governments is stockpiled in warehouses. Self-declared acting president Juan Guaido has vowed humanitarian aid would enter Venezuela despite a blockade Credit: AFP Guaido, 35, head of the opposition-run Congress, has provided few details on the transport plan. Trucks are expected to be driven by Venezuelan volunteers and some opposition figures have suggested forming human chains. "Today the obstacles that the dictatorship created will tomorrow be rivers of unity, of peace," Guaido said in a news conference on Friday in Cucuta, where he was received by Colombian President Ivan Duque. Venezuelan soldiers may bar the way. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a tweet late on Friday that Venezuela's government shut the Tachira border that connects it with Cucuta temporarily "due to a series of illegal threats" by Colombia. Venezuelan demonstrators clash with security forces in Urena, Venezuela, Credit: Reuters A group of frustrated Venezuelans who were seeking to cross into Colombia on Saturday to work morning threw rocks and bottles at National Guard troops, who responded with tear gas. "We were all going to work, we want to work, the people attempted to force through," said Viviana Meza, 29, who works in a Cucuta restaurant. At least four National Guard officers on Saturday at the border disavowed Maduro's government and requested assistance from the Colombian government, Colombia's migration agency said on Saturday. Videos on social media showed crowds first jeering and then cheering the men as they were escorted away by Colombian police. Venezuelans clash with national guards in the border town of Urena after Maduro´s government ordered to temporary close down the border with Colombia Credit: AFP Maduro blames the country's dire situation on U.S. sanctions that have blocked the country from obtaining financing and have hobbled the OPEC nation's oil industry. Rodriguez says the aid is poisoned. Concerns about the potential for violence flared on Friday when the Venezuelan army opened fire in an village near the Brazilian border after indigenous leaders attempted to prevent them from advancing, killing a woman and her husband. "I don't plan to leave my house over the weekend, especially after what happened near Brazil," said Paulina Sanchez, a 68-year-old grandmother who lives just 300 meters (yards) from the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge, one of the crossings through which aid may pass. "This could turn into a powder keg." Nearly 200,000 people attended a benefit concert in Cucuta on Friday featuring Latin pop stars, including Luis Fonsi of "Despacito" fame, many of whom called on Maduro to step down. A rival concert held by the ruling Socialist Party on the Venezuelan side was sparsely attended. Guaido in January invoked articles of the constitution to assume interim presidency and denounced Maduro as a usurper, arguing his 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Jhonny Godoy had taken to Twitter to proclaim his opposition to President Nicolas Maduro, posting a video that showed him running through the streets waving the national flag as protests erupted across Venezuela's capital.

Police fired tear gas at “yellow vest” demonstrators in Paris on Saturday but the turnout for round seven of the popular protests that have rocked France appeared low. Several hundred people wearing the symbolic hi-visibility vests had gathered near the offices of several state-run television stations and the BFM TV channel in the centre of the capital shouting “Fake news” and calling for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron. Protesters spilled onto tram lines and lobbed projectiles at police who replied with tear gas grenades and detained several people.